For about 8 skewers, you'll need:
About 9 or more lemongrass stalks
1 lb ground pork (Sometimes I do a mix of half pork and half turkey. Grind your own pork if you prefer a firmer, leaner patty. Or just be lazy like me and buy it pre-ground.)
1/2 medium onion, pureed until almost mushy. There should be no visible chunks of onion. (You'll want to omit the onion though if you want your patties to be firm. The water in the onions will soften the meat.)
4 cloves of garlic, finely minced or pureed with the onions
1 lemongrass stalk, white parts only, finely sliced and pureed
1 tblsps sugar or honey
1 tblsps Nuoc Mam (Vietnamese Fish Sauce)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground black pepper

Clean and wash lemongrass stalks. Trim off roots and tops, saving about three inches of leaves for presentation.

With a sharp knife, cut into the stalk between the roots and tops like the photo below. Turn the lemongrass stalk and keep cutting about every 1/4-inch.

If you separate the cuts, it should look like the photo below.

Stuff the ground meat in between the layers of lemongrass stalk as much as you can. Each stalk should hold about 2 tblsp of meat. Extra meat can be frozen and used later, or rolled into meatballs or patties and cooked on the grill as well.

Grill until cooked.

Pretty cool, yeah?

You can serve the meat patty-filled lemongrass stalks to the guests, or remove them from the stems. Serve with rice or rice paper to be rolled up like my usual nem nuong recipe.

Sounds and looks quite interesting! Everytime I eat nem nuong I think of your recipe. I always forget to try out your recipe instead of buying those weird plastic package ones- they taste good to me but the added stuff is weird!

Very cool, WC. Kudos on a beautiful, simple-looking dish. Can't wait to try it--Ill be inspired as I will be leaving tomorrow for LA, and will be spending Vietnamese New year in Westminster...Hmm, maybe I'll make them there and surprise my aunt! What's your all-time favorite Tet food?

Curious Lissa,Lemongrass is available frozen and pureed, you can check the freezer aisle of your Asian grocery store to see if it's there. That's probably your best bet if you don't live in an area where fresh lemongrass is readily available.

ETE,I've never bought nem nuong so I have no idea what the packaged stuff tastes like!

WeeMo,:)

Diana,Shh! That was gonna be my next experiment. Doing it the Laotian style with slivers of kaffir lime leaves with ground chicken and stuffing it in the lemongrass.

Mary,Please do. I could only do meatballs in just so many ways.

Tammy,Thanks! Hmm. You'll have to let me know how your family receives it if you do end up making it. My favorite Tet food has to be banh tet, that's the whole point of it right? Have a safe trip!

Nikki,It's an indoor electric grill in a ceramic pan. Cleans up great, although it doesn't get very hot. I picked it up at the thrift store in brand new condition for $8. Unfortunately, JetBlue broke it in my luggage. :( Fortunately, my friend Tony of SinoSoul had some kind of industrial-strength glue and managed to glue it together again. Haha. That was long-winded. :P

Kirk,I have to try making these with the ground chicken and thinly sliced kaffir lime leaves. Thank you for the idea.

I found your blog a few days ago, as I've been home from a 2 month trip through SE Asia for 3 weeks and am reproducing as much of the food I ate there as I possibly can. And I really *love* your writing about Vietnamese food! Definitely recognize a lot from my 3 weeks there.

Anyway, I've been reading through your posts and while there were many that made me want to comment (positive!) this is the one where I really couldn't stop myself: I was in Luang Prabang and I had that very dish - and it was definitely one of the most memorable food in Laos for me! So thanks for sharing all this and bringing a smile on my face as well as great memories on my mind. :)

(Sorry for the post saying anonymous; I can post with my livejournal ID - juupke - but it won't show it?! weird)

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